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I’ve seen a number of critics compare Christopher Nolan to the works of Stanley Kubrick. When one surveys the current state of big name directors, Nolan is perhaps on the surface the most appropriate modern analogue to Kubrick, but only insofar as they both began in noir and their films show an unusual attention to detail. In terms of subject matter, style, and character, they have very little in common. But the comparison seems valid, and after musing on it for a bit, I’ve developed a theory about why. This theory also examines why some people have felt disconnected from Inception (a film that I suspect I may end up considering Nolan’s best).

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The biggest problem I had with Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land was that it felt very much like two novels slammed together in a desperate attempt to form a singular work. There is a very definite shift in the last quarter of the novel, where the consequences of characters’ actions begin to vary wildly from expectations. None of this would be problematic if the first three quarters of the novel had not been spent criticizing what the final quarter ends up promoting.

Specifically, the shift in portrayals of religion in the novel is sloppy and poorly executed. Heinlein attempts to justify his sudden promotion of institutionalized religious dogma by explaining that he does not consider Valentine Michael Smith’s church to be a true religion as much as it is a spiritual movement. Yet he goes to great pains throughout the novel to draw explicit parallels between Mike’s church and that of the Fosterites, as well as to paint Foster himself as a huckster, only to suddenly reverse himself on both counts at the end of his story.

Worse, Heinlein’s shifts his writing style in the latter sections of the novel and commits the greatest sin a writer can commit: he starts telling us what is happening, rather than showing us. We hear a lot about Mike’s church and its impact on society and the way people react to it, but we don’t actually see any of this until the end, at which point it lacks the necessary emotional context to have a great impact. In addition, he begins to introduce new characters while downplaying established ones, to the determent of the story as a whole. The character of Jill, for instance, ultimately is a non-entity by the end of the story, despite being crucially important for the first three quarters. Did he stop liking her? Did he just not want to write her anymore? Why does he forget her so quickly?

Additionally, Heinlein’s theme has shifted profoundly by the end of the story. Initially promoting scientific reason, skepticism, and the foolishness of human culture, law, and institutions, he changes his tune and instead chooses to promote vague spiritualism and a survival-of-the-fittest mentality the belies not only previously developed ideas, but also the hitherto established Martian social structures which Mike’s character values. In the end, Heinlein tells us his message, but the way that it clashes with the themes developed throughout the story uncut its effectiveness.

I am being critical, I know, and I would recommend the book to anyone with an interest in science fiction. In the end, though, I couldn’t enjoy it on the same level I could some other sci-fi classics. It is guilty of too many of the things that it criticizes, and by its end, Heinlein has done what I considered impossible for him: he has stopped writing to the best of his abilities. That alone makes this novel a tragedy.

I had a long post a few months back ranting against the idea of Hulu going to a pay model. Now I’ve got a little bit of hat-eating to do. The reason is that the new service called Hulu Plus, which costs $9.99 a month and was announced today, does not replace the old service. Hulu.com remains free, with the same content system in place as ever (last 5 episodes are free). It does, however, stay confined to your desktop.

The monthly Hulu Plus fee unlocks back catalogs, meaning that you could theoretically stream any episode of any Hulu series anywhere. I like that arrangement quite a bit, especially since the cornerstone of the system is a new app released for the iPhone and iPad, in addition to upcoming applications for the PS3 and Xbox 360.

The only hitch, I think, is that a lot of people aren’t going to see why they should pay for Hulu Plus. This goes back to web entitlement issues – because everything has been free up until this point, people think they will always be free. I’m not sure how the service will fare, and the potential for a public backlash is there, but I’m more optimistic about it as its being implemented than I was a few months ago.

I’m ready to cancel my cable. Release this thing and let me justify it!

I’ve virtually abandoned Facebook in favor of Twitter. I’ve been thinking about it a little bit lately, and I think there are two things that have caused that, one of which is technological and one of which is philosophical. Neither has anything to do with privacy. I’ve more or less accepted that I live in an age where traditional notions of privacy have been thrown away as part of an agreement with web companies: they give us spectacular online services, and in exchange we give them the information they need to market virtually anything to us. I don’t have a problem with that. What I have a problem with is that as the Facebook platform has grown, it and I have grown apart.

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So please, do not make me subject to your wrath, mighty readers. I know that I said that I’d be blogging about both Frank Zappa and Doctor Who, and I still intend to do so. I’ll get my review of “Absolutely Free” up as soon as possible and continue from there. Who will have to wait a bit – I mailed my Doctor Who DVDs to my girlfriend while she’s interning abroad so that she would have some entertainment when she needs it. So that’s on hold for a bit. But coming.

My schedule has been horribly thrown off these last few weeks following the GMAT. I’m getting it back together – my writing, at least, seems to be back on track – but certain things like blogging have been neglected. I’ll get back to it regularly after the holiday.

Additionally, I am curious about what you readers think about the current look/feel of the site. Do you like the minimalism, or do the people demand their sidebars?

Coming soon: review of “Absolutely Free,” review of Stranger in a Strange Land, commentary on trends in computing and consumption, and possibly a piece on politics. (Yes, n00bs, this was once a fiercely political blog – that is, before I started working in politics.) Stay tuned.

I’ve hit upon a plot twist in my story that, while essential to the telling, will require me to take some extra time to complete this second draft. The challenge I was faced with was creating not only a compelling antagonist, but also strengthening the internal conflict faced by my protagonist. This new twist solves both of those problems, in addition to bringing certain plot elements in the rest of the story into focus.

In retrospect, I feel foolish for not reaching this twist earlier. It was the obvious one, but I neglected it due to my desire to keep certain plot elements a secret until late in the story. By executing the twist and pushing a major revelation forward in the story, I am allowing myself to develop a different type of dramatic tension, while also strengthening my protagonist’s arc. But sometimes I guess you need to realize what’s not working and why before you can accept an alternative approach.

So now the story continues, albeit slowly. My pace has slipped. I devoted a lot of time in recent weeks to the GMAT (with spectacular results), but couldn’t spend much time writing as a result. Now, with a bit more time on my hands, I’ll hopefully get rolling again.

I am an Apple fanboy. I own an iPhone, iPad, MacBook Pro, iPod, iPod Shuffle, and Apple TV. The iTunes Store is my primary media source, and Safari 5 is my primary web browser. When I visited my girlfriend in California last summer, a pilgrimage to Cupertino was a must. I even own an official Apple t-shirt, which is only sold at the company’s on-campus Cupertino outlet. I’m sold, I’m all in, because I believe that Apple is the company that hits the spot where quality, usability, and aesthetic intersect.

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The question at the heart of “The End of the World” is “What happens next?” This not only permeates the episode and colors the actions of its characters, but also inevitably rests in the mind of the viewer who, having been reasonably pleased with “Rose,” now wants to know whether this series will continue to captivate. To answer that question, writer Russell T. Davies weaves a tale that emphasizes death, loss, and the challenges of moving on, all centered around the planned demolition of planet Earth five billion years from now. Many seeds are planted in this episode, including the first mention of the “Bad Wolf” and the first appearance of the Face of Boe, but at its core, this is a story of three very different people and how they deal with endings.

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Released on June 27, 1966 on the Verve label, “Freak Out!” is the debut album from Frank Zappa’s first band, the Mothers of Invention. The Mothers were a unique and colorful group of individuals who were either in tune with Zappa’s unique brand of artistic expression or at least willing to go along with it. “Freak Out!” introduced the unsuspecting world of popular music to this brand, and although it was neither critically nor commercially successful in its time, the album has since grown in acclaim to become one of the seminal musical works of the 1960s. Generally considered ahead of its time, it is still remarkably inaccessible. It is dense, complex, and challenging. In fact, “Freak Out!” is expressly structured to force listeners to reexamine preconceived notions of what is musically, morally, and socially acceptable – an ambitious goal for a debut album!

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Doctor Who holds the distinction of being one of the most enduring science fiction programs on either side of the Atlantic. Debuting in November 1963 on BBC One, the series was originally intended as a history lesson, but quickly blossomed into a nationwide television phenomenon, featuring a time-traveling hero and his companions righting wrongs and confronting moral and ethical dilemmas and universe-threatening catastrophes. With a rotating cast and a stable of talented writers making up for a notable lack of budget, the program underwent several reinventions; in its original run, it saw seven actors assume the iconic role of the the mysterious “Doctor,” whose origins and even name remain to this day shrouded in mystery. The first of these actors was William Hartnell, who was followed in the role by Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, and Sylvester McCoy. The program ran for twenty-six series in Britain before being cancelled during McCoy’s run in 1989. An unsuccessful television movie aired in 1996 introduced a new Doctor in the form of Paul McGann, whose singular appearance was the last many thought they would ever see of their beloved hero.

But in 2005, a new Doctor Who began airing on BBC One. Masterminded by writer-producer Russell T. Davies, the new program is a direct continuation of all that had come before, but was designed to be younger, fresher, and edgier – in short, Doctor Who for the 21^st Century, at least in the eyes of studio executives. The details of the production, and of the whole program’s complex history, are widely available elsewhere on the Internet, but given the context, it is easy to see why the premiere episode of the new series, entitled “Rose,” was so hotly anticipated before its release. In a new recurring feature here at StefanClaypool.com, I am going to be viewing and analyzing each episode of the revived series, exploring what works and what doesn’t, and attempting to draw some conclusions about why the Doctor’s story seems destined to go on forever. Rather than present an exhaustive scene-by-scene recap of the episode, I’ll be discussing the importance of key themes and events to the overarching story, while at the same time analyzing the development of characters, ideas, and the production as a whole.

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